Trish's blog

For those of us who are frequently in the kitchen, creating yummy dishes with our local produce...we have many beautiful scraps that would be a shame to end up in the trash.

For those of us who are gardeners, we all are itching to get back in the dirt. One thing that I am looking forward to is using all of the rich, black composting soil that has come from all of my kitchen waste. I use so much fresh produce daily that I am stocked up! Another great way to compost is with worms. Children love helping and it's amazing to see those little creatures churn out such great compost. I personally used a "Worm Condo" and had a wooden system that was similar to this:

"Cultivating Food and Art" was a fantastic event at the Wild Goose this weekend. Local Matters Food Educators, Jesse Hickman and Amanda Seaton facilitated a workshop titled, "Food is Art." We had so much fun. Children and their parents had large platters of beautiful fruits and vegetables to create their own edible sculptures. Can you guess what we did with the sculptures after we created them? You've got it! Art never tasted so good! Everyone was so creative too....stay tuned for some of those photos.

Chef Jeremy Gedhert created some delicious foods, vegetable spring rolls, roasted squash soup, bread salad, asian slaw, local sausage & vegetable shish-kabobs, bruschetta and roasted squash/broccoli platter. It was a nice display of colors, showcasing the beauty of food.

The Local Food to School Program continues to grow, strengthening our local food system. The Food is Elementary program has expanded and we now connect with over 900 children each week! There are also 60 teachers and hundreds of parents, interns and volunteers....all experiencing delicious local foods, preparing simple, healthy dishes, learning more about health and wellness and gaining insight one person at a time. That is what has been so exciting to see, the changes happening in our system. Any change on a system level requires partnerships, multi-level programming and continually assessing our work to make sure we are what the community needs.

Howard Sacks was honored for his leadership in the promotion of the local foods system. Knox County has over 1,300 farms, spanning over 206,000 acres. Our nation spends over $130,000 million in food purchases and intiatives such as this keep some of those dollars right here in Ohio. There are many benefits of stregthening your local food system, regardless of where you live. Multi-faceted finacial benefits are often overlooked. Read more about his award.

Click here for more information on the Kenyon program Food for Thought.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of time with loved ones. I have to admit, Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. I love the time with friends and family, but the emphasis primarily eating seems unheathy. Each year my family has the same menu, for as long as I can remember:

Midwest Thanksgiving Menu

A giant Turkey

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Cheesy Potato Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Candied Yams

Macoroni and Cheese

dinner rolls

Texas Corn Casserole

Oyster Casserole

Many pies

I leave each year feeling tired and needing a long walk. I am not used to eating such processed foods. All of the dishes have large amounts of fat and sugar. There is nothing fresh. I did ask if we had a fresh salad and the half joking response was, "This is Thanksgiving. We don't have salad on thanksgiving."

www.foodnews.org/

This is a helpful website that Local Matter's Noreen Warnock sent me. The site helps the user decide which produce to buy organic.

We are in the middle of our second year of "Food is Elementary" being taught to hundreds of Columbus area children. It is difficult to explain how much of an impact our work has made,but let me try. Here are some of the comments that children, parents, teachers and staff have made about changes they have made in their lives regarding food:

"I eat more vegetables so I can be strong. See my muscles?"

I recently had a conversation with some friends asking, "How do we know what is truly local?" Wal-mart and many other billion dollar mega corporations have laid claims to the word LOCAL. I encourage you to research our local products here in Columbus. There are endless goodies that are from RIGHT HERE, locally grown, handmade and produced. Here is an excerpt from a post on the trend:
 
 
Hoping to capitalize on growing public enthusiasm for all things local, some of the world's biggest corporations are brashly laying claim to the word.